worst shithole of a major american city

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which major american city (you define "major") most closely resembles an ass-ugly, boring-as-fuck shithole?

now i haven't traveled all over this fine land but based on my limited experience i'm going to say indianapolis

flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 01:04 (fourteen years ago)

new york

yung huma (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 01:07 (fourteen years ago)

Stockton, CA is the biggest shithole of a city i've ever visited. it's bigger than Newark, NJ (which is also a shithole but at least it isn't boring) so if either qualifies as "major" then Stockton would get my vote.

pork tartare (Eisbaer), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 01:13 (fourteen years ago)

by shithole i guess i'm thinking less urban decay/blight and more "christ is this place boring"

though for both at once you could do worse than toledo, ohio

flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 01:15 (fourteen years ago)

Phoenix?

Euler, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 01:17 (fourteen years ago)

Didn't we do this? Hard to search on phone but I could swear....

Octavia Butler's gonna be piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiised (Laurel), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 01:18 (fourteen years ago)

This has to be Houston...

citation needed (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 02:13 (fourteen years ago)

Jacksonville.

Anakin Ska Walker (AKA Skarth Vader) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 02:13 (fourteen years ago)

Yeah we totally did this within the last year. I think it was poll thread.

Juggy Brottleteen (ENBB), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 02:14 (fourteen years ago)

of the cities I've been to I have no idea how this CAN'T be Newark

Tallahassee itself wasn't that great but I had a lot of fun on the FAMU campus

if it was a major city, this would be Alexandria, LA no contest

the tax avocado (DJP), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 02:16 (fourteen years ago)

ohhhh, tallahasee is not a major city

yung huma (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 02:17 (fourteen years ago)

but it's a capital!

signed, someone who grew up outside of St. Paul

the tax avocado (DJP), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 02:18 (fourteen years ago)

it's a college town that is also a capital for no reason

yung huma (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 02:18 (fourteen years ago)

of the cities I've been to I have no idea how this CAN'T be Newark

the city that gave the world Redman, Corey Booker and Tony Soprano; whose nickname is "Brick City" and has a neighborhood called Ironbound with tons of yummy Latino & Portuguese eats (and whose old nickname is Down Neck); and isn't even the skankiest city in New Jersey (that honor belongs to either Camden or East Orange) is totally not the worst shithole of a major American city.

i strongly suspect Jacksonville would win this contest -- but i've never been there so i can't vote for it. i have been to Stockton, CA and that does get my vote.

pork tartare (Eisbaer), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 02:22 (fourteen years ago)

somewhere in alabama ime

puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 02:23 (fourteen years ago)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/82/239891424_8e99979771.jpg

one reason why Newark doesn't win this contest ... yum

pork tartare (Eisbaer), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 02:26 (fourteen years ago)

Albany

san lazaro, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 02:31 (fourteen years ago)

steve shasta otm

max, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 02:31 (fourteen years ago)

newark is not a major city, i mean whats a major city, whatever it is not newark

ice cr?m, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 02:32 (fourteen years ago)

but yeah prob houston i support that

ice cr?m, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 02:32 (fourteen years ago)

idk top 30 top 40 maybe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_United_States_Metropolitan_Statistical_Areas

ice cr?m, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 02:34 (fourteen years ago)

kinda want to argue DC here but i know its not really true

max, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 02:34 (fourteen years ago)

eh if you go by that then riverside/san berdoo is one of the top 15 cities in the country

max, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 02:35 (fourteen years ago)

never been to houston, so i have to say phoenix. every time i've been there i've hated the fuck out of it.

and you are a part of everything and everything is like melting (ytth), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 02:35 (fourteen years ago)

im just gonna lump then in w/l.a. nbd xp

ice cr?m, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 02:35 (fourteen years ago)

from that wiki list

26 Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL MSA

^^ding ding ding

yung huma (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 02:36 (fourteen years ago)

Well Houston won at least one of the times this was done before.

of the 20 largest american cities, which is THE WORST?

Juggy Brottleteen (ENBB), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 02:37 (fourteen years ago)

Charlotte

Jeff, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 02:38 (fourteen years ago)

This is the one I was thinking of that we did more recently:

What Is America’s Most Miserable City?

Juggy Brottleteen (ENBB), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 02:39 (fourteen years ago)

Orlando is really bad.

Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 03:10 (fourteen years ago)

man these threads full of how bad we can hate on a place are such a drag

I know I ain't gotta read 'em but phooey on you hater ppl all these towns got something great about em

pathos of the unwarranted encore (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 03:20 (fourteen years ago)

nuh uh *explodes orlando and every human within*

ice cr?m, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 03:22 (fourteen years ago)

i know a lot of people that went to COLLEGE in ORLANDO

yung huma (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 03:26 (fourteen years ago)

COLLEGE!!!

yung huma (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 03:27 (fourteen years ago)

aero do you really believe there are simply no shitty parts of the country at all

iatee, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 03:28 (fourteen years ago)

orlando has disneyworld!! wtf!!

k3vin k., Wednesday, 5 October 2011 03:29 (fourteen years ago)

lol, you've really never been to orlando, have you

yung huma (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 03:31 (fourteen years ago)

i've been to disneyworld. also dwight howard

k3vin k., Wednesday, 5 October 2011 03:32 (fourteen years ago)

Houston

Kiarostami bag (milo z), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 03:36 (fourteen years ago)

aero do you really believe there are simply no shitty parts of the country at all

not just the country the world. like I goof on Germany but that's just because I had a shitty time there once that was like this month-long horror so traumatizing that I can't re-enter the country w/o reliving it, but when I'm not just doing "lol they shit on shelves" schtick I know better, all kinds of good things about Germany obv. (nb I still avoid the hell out of it don't get me wrong.) I just think everyplace in the fuckin world is nice there's good people & beautiful things everywhere & "what place sucks the most?" is just such a make-the-world-a-tiny-bit-worse look. and I think people who take a lot of pleasure in talking about how shitty this or that place is are without exception more unpleasant to hear & be around than the places they're running down.

pathos of the unwarranted encore (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 03:40 (fourteen years ago)

Ilxville

Jeff, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 03:48 (fourteen years ago)

Houston is a shithole and it smells bad

ilx user 'silby' (silby), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 03:56 (fourteen years ago)

consists entirely of a highway

ilx user 'silby' (silby), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 03:56 (fourteen years ago)

has sideways traffic lights

ilx user 'silby' (silby), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 03:56 (fourteen years ago)

I'm with aero to an extent, but Houston sounds pretty bad.

ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 04:14 (fourteen years ago)

jacksonville seconded

balls, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 04:15 (fourteen years ago)

using amster's defn of shithole

balls, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 04:16 (fourteen years ago)

In terms of visiting and hanging out for a couple of days every major or second-tier level city I've been to has had something worth checking out. If you like roaming around and people watching and eating and finding out what sort of defines a place it's always fun for a least a couple of days, even just to wonder why exactly half a million or so people all choose to live in a particular spot.

But I've never lived anywhere particularly huge or immediately mind-blowing so my perspective and willingness to look for the good in places and/or my tolerance for boring shit might be higher.

joygoat, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 04:22 (fourteen years ago)

smh @ lack of philly

thistle supporter (mcoll), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 16:45 (fourteen years ago)

on the scale of well-known american cities (excising stockton orlando etc.) def a srs shithole

thistle supporter (mcoll), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 16:47 (fourteen years ago)

But Detroit is further east than all of Alabama, and Alabama is in the SEC, so....

pplains, Thursday, 15 March 2018 13:20 (seven years ago)

frightened to imagine what moov's posts look like before they're "edited down'

Doctor Casino, Thursday, 15 March 2018 13:28 (seven years ago)

timecube.txt, basically

in conclusion, it is good to peel the sheeps (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 15 March 2018 13:30 (seven years ago)

https://i.imgur.com/noQitra.gif

pplains, Thursday, 15 March 2018 14:12 (seven years ago)

Minneapolis is growing not shrinking

http://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-is-experiencing-a-population-boom-like-the-roaring-twenties/422600314/

(it's down from it's peak but the population is rising now, and I think will eventually get back to 500k if the current condo/apartment boom continued unabated)

The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 15 March 2018 14:31 (seven years ago)

for work we had a client involved in downtown minneapolis commerce and they said that downtown has added 10K population in the last decade

The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 15 March 2018 14:32 (seven years ago)

i'd be curious how accurate that list is...because they are comparing 2010 census to mid-century peaks, which most if not all of that loss was probably starting in the late 60s through the 80s and not (necessarily) indicative of what's going on now (though in some cases they could still be shrinking obv)

The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 15 March 2018 14:34 (seven years ago)


Residents continue to pour into Minneapolis, which is seeing its biggest decade for growth since the 1920s.

Latest estimates from the Metropolitan Council show the city has grown by about 10 percent since just 2010, adding about 37,374 residents. That puts the city's population, now about 419,000, on pace to reach nearly 450,000 by the end of the decade.

The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 15 March 2018 14:34 (seven years ago)

there's a lot of goofy stuff on this the more you look at it.
like Newark's "decline" is from a peak in 1930, it's actually stable and up slightly since 1990

same with New Haven (same since 1990), Washington DC (up over 100,000 people since 1997)

The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 15 March 2018 14:43 (seven years ago)

Boston is up 100,000 people since 1990 as well

The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 15 March 2018 14:45 (seven years ago)

Cities have gravity.

valorous wokelord (silby), Thursday, 15 March 2018 14:46 (seven years ago)

thinking about starting to pronounce shithole with a soft th. if anyone else wants to get on board i would appreciate the support.

Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 15 March 2018 15:08 (seven years ago)

hard h shithole is a shibboleth

motorpsycho nightmare winningham (Hadrian VIII), Thursday, 15 March 2018 15:25 (seven years ago)

I knew something was off with the poor KC showing, and I was right - I had not adjusted the density calculation for its historical footprint as I had done with Louisville, e.g. Reworking the figures places KC just behind STL in the overall ranking (roughly 20th place), and ahead of it, just behind Detroit (and Silicon Valley), in the age-agnostic one. That is, it's firmly in place with the traditional cities that still rank ahead of the bigger Atlantas, Dallas/Houstons, and Phoenixes.

Moo Vaughn, Thursday, 15 March 2018 16:57 (seven years ago)

The only large core cities that are still losing people are almost entirely contained within the rust belt.

"Minneapolis" (barf) (Eric H.), Thursday, 15 March 2018 17:15 (seven years ago)

I left Minneapolis in 1995. Figured I had accidentally started a trend.

pplains, Thursday, 15 March 2018 17:57 (seven years ago)

Plugging in the Canadian cities, not entirely apples to apples but I think close enough, I rank Toronto and Montreal just behind Philly and ahead of LA. On an age-agnostic ranking, LA beats MTL, but TO pulls ahead of both Philly and LA, while still trailing Boston/DC/SF etc. Vancouver ranks right behind the Twin Cities, just ahead of Seattle, but age-agnostic it pulls ahead of both, right behind Miami.

Moo Vaughn, Thursday, 15 March 2018 18:12 (seven years ago)

If we just give you this thread, would you concentrate the entirety of your ILX posting energies on further elaborations of your urban demographic model?

Doctor Casino, Thursday, 15 March 2018 18:40 (seven years ago)

according to my own matrix - i won't bore you with the details of how this is worked out - vancouver, bc ranks slightly ahead of scranton pa, but somewhat behind vancouver wa and perpendicular to boise id. toronto and montreal are tied with sequim wa but slightly ahead of sioux city ia

Louis Jägermeister (jim in vancouver), Thursday, 15 March 2018 18:50 (seven years ago)

well, that's not so surprising, vancouver is in the northeast while sioux city, being high on the windy steppe, has long attracted new residents from mongolia as well as the argentinian reaches of the altiplano.

Doctor Casino, Thursday, 15 March 2018 18:59 (seven years ago)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altiplano
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iowa_Assessments
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Passage

basic stuff can't believe i'm having to explain all this

Doctor Casino, Thursday, 15 March 2018 19:01 (seven years ago)

making amendments to the matrix

Louis Jägermeister (jim in vancouver), Thursday, 15 March 2018 19:07 (seven years ago)

I moved to Minneapolis in 1994, btw.

pplains, Thursday, 15 March 2018 20:05 (seven years ago)

its not a major american city but i was watching the first episode of Flint Town on Netfix, their sad documentary series on Flint, Michigan and i flashed back to years ago when maria and i drove across the country and we were on the highway going by/passing Flint and i got an overwhelming feeling of danger/dread that i had never experienced before. i remember thinking in my head: oh jeez please don't break down please don't break down. like i really really wanted to get past the city exits as quickly as possible. i was afraid that if we broke down nobody would ever find us. or wolves would eat us? it was weird. i've driven through a lot of bad shit in eastern cities, nyc, philly, camden friggin' nj. never felt like that before or since.

just thought i'd share that here.

scott seward, Thursday, 15 March 2018 20:12 (seven years ago)

Flint - the R'lyeh of the USA.

めんどくさかった (Matt #2), Thursday, 15 March 2018 20:14 (seven years ago)

Flint is among the two dozen or so that have declined under the 100K mark, along with other frequently-dismissed cities like Camden, Gary, Scranton, Trenton, and Youngstown, but I still rank it just ahead of Ann Arbor for urbanity

Moo Vaughn, Thursday, 15 March 2018 20:50 (seven years ago)

wow, that's crazy that trenton has less than 100k people. i always think of it as more populated. even my ailing neighbor springfield, ma has more people than that. they might not all be happy about it, but they are there.

scott seward, Thursday, 15 March 2018 20:55 (seven years ago)

worcester has an even bigger population than springfield. almost 200 thousand. little-known fact.

scott seward, Thursday, 15 March 2018 20:56 (seven years ago)

The Trenton metro area, which is coterminous with Mercer County, is much larger, 370K, but Trenton proper has been under 100K for the past four decades or so.

Moo Vaughn, Thursday, 15 March 2018 21:02 (seven years ago)

Worcester is a fascinating city. All of the advantages of the first half of the twentieth century, and all the disadvantages from the second half.

rb (soda), Thursday, 15 March 2018 21:28 (seven years ago)

This fella would like a word with you about saying Ohio is the Northeast.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DYYCl24X4AIiCP-.jpg

EZ Snappin, Friday, 16 March 2018 02:30 (seven years ago)

Yeah but Butler Co. is SW.

Layers upon layers, like cheese on chocolate on spaghetti.

pplains, Friday, 16 March 2018 02:35 (seven years ago)

Mmm chili mac

valorous wokelord (silby), Friday, 16 March 2018 02:37 (seven years ago)

It's 100 miles from Columbus. That'd still be the same metro area in Texas.

EZ Snappin, Friday, 16 March 2018 02:40 (seven years ago)

Please to read again: "Northeast" was shorthand for "Northeast quadrant of the country" (for which I assume no visual aid is necessary). While I'm not sure the Western Reserve shouldn't be incorporated into a "Northeast" that the Feds officially extend to the Western NY/PA borders (and I'd tend to extend it below the Mason-Dixon to include DC), I wouldn't regard anything west of the Appalachians in those states as the Northeast.

Moo Vaughn, Friday, 16 March 2018 02:57 (seven years ago)

tbf you also have previously located arkansas within the appalachians so i'm rolling with the assumption that all of this geography is loosely or indeed randomly assigned

Doctor Casino, Friday, 16 March 2018 03:04 (seven years ago)

And no one else has ever used "Northeast" as shorthand for "Northeast quadrant".

EZ Snappin, Friday, 16 March 2018 03:45 (seven years ago)

Please to read again: I wrote a post that referred to the "Northeast quadrant of the country" then subsequently used "Northeast" as a shorthand reference to same. I then edited the post without noticing that I had excised the former description. Thank you for your concern.

Moo Vaughn, Friday, 16 March 2018 03:47 (seven years ago)

I grew up in Zone 17 but when my parents divorced my mom moved us into the Moot Realm. Still have family there.

motorpsycho nightmare winningham (Hadrian VIII), Friday, 16 March 2018 03:59 (seven years ago)

salt lake city is a waking nightmare for the most part. it's a place that gaslights you for wanting to partake of things like "clean air" and "genuine culture"

map, Friday, 16 March 2018 04:50 (seven years ago)

streets are too wide for the chariots

alomar lines, Friday, 16 March 2018 05:05 (seven years ago)

Please to read again: I wrote a post that referred to the "Northeast quadrant of the country" then subsequently used "Northeast" as a shorthand reference to same. I then edited the post without noticing that I had excised the former description. Thank you for your concern.

― Moo Vaughn, Thursday, March 15, 2018 10:47 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i too would like to thank ez snappin for his concern in a very sincere manner. (also dude that earthless record is ill)

The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 16 March 2018 14:32 (seven years ago)

two weeks pass...

The top 75 US/CDN cities on my age-half-inclusive measure (of traditional urbanity?)...
NYC
Chicago
Boston
San Francisco
Washington, D.C.
Philadelphia
Toronto
Montreal
(Newark)
Los Angeles
Baltimore
(East Bay)
Minneapolis-St. Paul
Vancouver
Seattle
Orange County
Providence
Miami
Long Island
(Camden)
Detroit
New Haven
St. Louis
Kansas City
Pittsburgh
Cleveland
Denver
Milwaukee
Dallas
Portland
San Diego
Atlanta
Houston
(Wilmington)
San Jose-Silicon Valley
New Orleans
Buffalo
Hartford
Bridgeport-Stamford
Rochester
Sacramento
Cincinnati
Fort Lauderdale
Worcester
Columbus
Riverside-San Bernardino
Hampton Roads
Tampa Bay
Lehigh Valley
Louisville
Ventura County
Fort Worth
(Tacoma)
Honolulu
San Antonio
Grand Rapids
Phoenix
Las Vegas
Albany
(Reading)
Syracuse
Richmond
Austin
(Trenton)
Stockton
Charlotte
Omaha
Fresno
Springfield MA
Indianapolis
Salt Lake City
(Akron)
Orlando
Raleigh
Toledo
(Scranton)
Memphis
Albuquerque
Dayton
(Santa Rosa/Sonoma County)
El Paso

Moo Vaughn, Tuesday, 3 April 2018 19:44 (seven years ago)

The top 50 on my age-agnostic measure (of big-city-ness less concerned with traditional urban form?)...
NYC
Chicago
Boston/Washington, D.C./San Francisco
Toronto
Los Angeles
Philadelphia
Montreal
Miami
Vancouver
Seattle
Baltimore
Twin Cities
Detroit
Kansas City
St. Louis
Pittsburgh/Dallas
San Diego
Sacramento
Houston/Portland
Denver
Cleveland
Milwaukee/Atlanta
Hartford
Tampa Bay
Las Vegas
Phoenix/Buffalo
Rochester
New Orleans
Hampton Roads
Honolulu
Cincinnati
Columbus
San Antonio
Louisville
Grand Rapids
Fresno
Austin
Charlotte
Albany
Orlando
Richmond
Syracuse
Raleigh
Salt Lake City
Springfield, MA
Albuquerque
Indianapolis

Moo Vaughn, Tuesday, 3 April 2018 19:44 (seven years ago)

yes but which are shitholes

valorous wokelord (silby), Tuesday, 3 April 2018 19:49 (seven years ago)

That is not my preferred nomenclature, dude.

Moo Vaughn, Tuesday, 3 April 2018 19:50 (seven years ago)

sad that we'll never know

mookieproof, Tuesday, 3 April 2018 20:47 (seven years ago)

one year passes...

“worst state” to be fair. it’s fuckin weird out here folks. west valley city is a gritty burb directly adjacent to salt lake city and is far from the worst shithole city here though. that would be somewhere completely cursed like vernal or nephi.

cheese canopy (map), Sunday, 24 November 2019 05:07 (five years ago)

or price. carbon county has something like 44 opiate scrips per capita

cheese canopy (map), Sunday, 24 November 2019 05:19 (five years ago)


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